I have an old Ring Magazine predicting the outcome of a Holyfield vs Witherspoon fight for Holyfield's maiden title defense. The way they discuss the fight it sounds like everything was sew up and the fight was do to happen in Feb. 1991. Can anyone confirm this? At any rate the real reason I made this thread would be to discuss how this intriguing matchup would come off. At this point in his career Holyfield was ****ing ravenous for respect and trying to get Tyson in the ring to punish Iron Mike for making him wait so long for a title shot. At that point he had won all his heavyweight fights by knockout and he was probably never better. Witherspoon was recovering well from his shocking defeat to Smith with wins over Jeff Sims (rather underrated) and Jose Ribalta and before the Smith loss he had probably his career best win in stopping Bruno. Any thoughts on how this would come off? If Holyfield won (as I suspect he would, the real question is in what fashion) what would a successful defense against Witherspoon do for his reputation if anything.
I was an avid subscriber of the ring magazine back in the early 90's, but don't recall any mention of a Holyfield Witherspoon fight ( though its been 20 years or more ). In fact, Spoon, although coming back respectably, was basically blackballed from the big picture.. I do remember seeing his comeback bouts with Anders Ecklund, Jeff Simms, and Jose Ribalta though, and he was from memory, ranked about #5 by the ring in 1991, and in the top 10 by all the sanctioning bodies... He was even holding the USBA title as well, or some other regional belt.. Spoon was actually a man who I wanted to see get back into the mix of things, and had Holyfield signed to fight him in place of Foreman, I would have gladly paid to see it... Even though in those days, it would have likely appeared on HBO with no additional pay per view charge.... My prediction, would have been a wide decision for Evander..
Witherspoon in shape and motivated? That was Tim's problem. He had very good skills but not great, but he almost was something special. Tim at his best could have beaten Evander. But Evander fought well consistently and he would have won a decision.
Spoon would need to be in fine shape. Spoon was okay against an okay Carl Williams that year, but Spoon would lose a 12 rounder on points to a peak 208 pound Holy in 1991...... MR.BILL:yep
Spoon is one of my favorites, he & Dokes my personal fave 2 from the lost generation of heavyweights. On his night Tim can win (especially the 80's version) but Holy is busier & tuff enuff to eat the few rights that get through and takes a wide ud. He partially or totally blocks most of Tims rights.
Terrible Tim hadn't been doing much between his loss to Bonecrusher and his SD win over Truth Williams. Spoon was sloppy, unmotivated and out of shape and would lose to Bigfoot Martin a year later. He had no business sharing the ring with Holyfield at this time. He wouldn't look good again until his fight with Gonzalez in 1996.
Holyfield would simply outwork Witherspoon. It's a match-up between a great work ethic and a notoriously poor one. The Witherspoon that fought Holmes, however, would have troubled Evander a lot, and might've won. But that was not the TYPICAl Tim, now was it? There is the exception and the rule, and most of the time fighters should be judged by the rule!
91 Spoon was not in good enough shape to compete with Holyfield. He would be outworked and outfought. A prime, motivated Spoon would be tough to beat, though. In his day, he did everything very well, but nothing great.
